Give Yourself an Immunity Boost

Can't shake that cold or flu? Stress, lifestyle habits and structural imbalances may be spoiling your body's ability to fight infection or illness. Give yourself an all-natural immunity boost by learning the warning signs of disease and ways to build your resistance.

Do you know if your immune system is healthy? If it's not, what can you do to give it a boost? The body's powerful immune system is designed to protect you from almost everything harmful - if you don't interfere with its functioning!

A Healthy Immune System

You have two types of immunity - innate and acquired. Innate immunity comprises white blood cells, stomach acid, skin resistance (such as the natural oil that covers the skin to keep invaders out) and various chemicals in the bloodstream. This immunity is automatic and normally takes care of small invaders.

Acquired immunity offers more serious protection. It's like an army of Pac-Man "T cells" ("T" from the thymus gland) and "B cells" (from bone marrow) that consume whatever they are programmed to destroy.

A healthy acquired immune system works like this: When you are exposed to a virus, for instance, you feel discomfort as the immune system's T and B cells recognize the viral enemy and begin to fight it. The good news is that the clever Pac-Man cells now are tipped off to this enemy and will preemptively fight it (with no discomfort for you) for the rest of your life - which, of course, is the theory behind vaccinations.

You need to be exposed to the invading agent and experience the uncomfortable symptoms only once. During subsequent exposure, you will not feel the "fight" process which, like exercising a muscle, actually strengthens your immunity. Unfortunately, the immune system does not recognize and kill cancer cells, because cancer is not actually a foreign object, but a cluster of one's own specific cells reverted to a primitive state.

Chiropractor Denean Lodestro had many respiratory allergies, which she decided to treat naturally. In the spring, she went out and sat in the fields, reading a book, sneezing and coughing, until her symptoms disappeared; she had no further symptoms that season. When fall came with different allergens, she repeated the process, was uncomfortable for two or three days, and again had no further allergic reactions.